Learn to Pick Locks for Fun and an Increased Understanding of Security

I originally learned in a class. I carry a pair of titanium bodegas in my wallet.<p>The first interesting thing you'll probably learn is that the more "secure" something is marketed as being to consumers, the easier it is to pick.<p>Any sort of safe you buy from the likes of Walmart, Office Depot/Max, Costco and so on, can be picked in a few seconds. I have a not-cheap, mid-line Sentry fireproof safe and I can "pick" that by just sliding the rake into the lock.<p>Gun locks and home safe locks are usually cheap crap and probably the easiest to pick. I've picked close to a 100 different types.<p>If you want to learn, I suggest starting with paperclips as they're good at training you on the kind of tension you want to use. Most beginners use way too much tension. Paperclips will bend when you cross that threshold. They're also much harder to pick with than a legit set of picks.<p>My knowledge really improved when I re-keyed my home locks from some kits I ordered online. It really put things into perspective.

Lockpicking is one of my hobbies from one year. Is incredible fun and challenging.<p>If you want to start, I recommend you reading the MIT Lockpicking guide. It have the basics: <a href="http://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/MITLockGuide.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/MITLockGuide.pdf</a><p>You can found a cheap lockpicking set here: <a href="https://www.dealextreme.com/p/advanced-9-piece-set-lock-picks-16417" rel="nofollow">https://www.dealextreme.com/p/advanced-9-piece-set-lock-pick...</a><p>Also start opening cheap padlocks so you can get your first success fast and get motivated.

After being involved within the family business (lock smiths and security engineers) for 3 years whilst in college, you end up realising how insecure and inadequate 80% of the locks around you are.<p>Any person with a small degree of knowledge can do some serious amount of damage if they wanted to turn rouge. (Bump keys and Snappers) Saying that it is a very fascinating skill to learn, the social response to stating that you are a trained locksmith in conversations is quite interesting.

Lock picking is a fun thing to learn to do as a hobby. I learnt to do it many years ago from the MIT guide and have a small set of picks that I bought from <a href="http://www.southord.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.southord.com/</a><p>I've only ever once actually used this skill on anything other than my own locks. My upstairs neighbor was moving out of his apartment and managed to slam the front door shut with his keys inside and the movers and himself outside. I opened the lock for him after fiddling around for about five minutes helping to get his move moving.

One of the most interesting things I learned from lockpicking was how the physical size of the lock actually has little to do with how easily it can be bypassed.<p>Another cool side effect is learning about lock mechanisms. There are so many different designs out there (many of them are hundreds of years old), and it is neat learning about how they work.

You can pick standard Yale style pin tumbler locks with a penknife nail file and a paperclip.<p>Insert the nail file into the lock and apply turning pressure as if you are turning the key, then fiddle with the pins with the folded out paperclip. One by one the pins pop into place and the lock will open.<p>You can do this with practice in under 30 seconds. If you only have a Yale lock on your front door, fit a good quality lock instead, or at least a good secondary. If you are at home and only have a Yale style lock on your front door, then always lock the door and leave the key quarter turned in the lock.<p>This prevents anyone from trying to enter from the other direction. It also makes it easy to escape from the locked house in case of a fire if the keys are in the door already.

A few years ago I was working on a spy-action game. One of the sub-games was a lock picking section. One of the programmers ordered a lock picking kit, along with several padlocks. This of course spread through the office like wild fire. Pretty soon there were several programmers crowding round each others desk picking locks of all kinds.<p>What became readily apparent was where the money went between £3 and a £25 lock.<p>I think I can confidently say that our lock picking sub-game was thoroughly researched.

Our local hackerspace in Chicago hosts TOOOL meetings, which got me hooked a couple of months ago. I <i>heartily</i> recommend this book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Lock-Picking-Penetration-ebook/dp/B004Q9TZSY" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Lock-Picking-Penetration-ebo...</a><p>I read the first half in a day, and was picking locks successfully the next day. Just remember the golden rules: (1) only pick locks you own, (2) don't pick locks you depend on (they're easy to break.)<p>If you look at TOOOL's site, they sell a nice beginner toolkit for $30. Love it.

A coworker of mine was into this as a hobby for a period of time. He always carried his picks with two or three practice locks of increasing difficulty. With a few minutes explanation from him on how it works I was able to pick the easier locks within ten minutes without having done it before. I was almost tempted to get my own set and one or two of the more difficult locks just for the mental challenge. Seems it might have made for a good distraction to have during difficult times in a project and needing a break.

I gave a talk about lock picking at work a while ago. Here's a 30 minute video: <a href="http://skookum.com/blog/lockpicking-101/" rel="nofollow">http://skookum.com/blog/lockpicking-101/</a>

One piece of advice, if you only have one practice lock and your friend decides he wants to try to pick your front door's deadbolt.. don't let him. Now I need a new deadbolt.

/r/lockpicking is a fun place as well, there is a lot of good info posted there.<p>Also be sure to look at Schuyler Townes lock picking how to videos.

Does anyone has some good suggestions for different difficulty levels of locks to train with?<p>I am quite fast with basic locks but as soon as they get a bit more sophisticated (i.e. mushroom heads) I can play around for hours and don't get them open.

This is a YC interview question. They lock you in a room with a pick, and if you can pick the lock you move onto the next stage.<p>Otherwise the floor opens, and they feed you to the sharks (with lasers on their noses naturally).